The pan-aurora borealis is visible over Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington at night (Reuters / NASA) / Reuters

As parties to various conflicts increasingly resort to satellite and drone images as court evidence, two British experts have decided to become founding fathers of a one-of-a-kind specialist agency – claiming to be unique “space detectives”.

Ray Harris, an emeritus professor of Geography, and Ray Purdy, a
visiting senior research fellow at the Faculty of Laws, both from
the University College London, have launched “Air & Space
Evidence” – the first space detective agency in the world.

The academics’ team-work on interdisciplinary projects on Earth
observation data during the last few years revealed that most
people, even lawyers, insurance investigators and legal
enforcement officials lack experience and knowledge in the
developing field.

Their potential clients could be both from public and private
sectors, as the pair have some background in tackling a variety
of legal cases, ranging from investigating fraud to environmental
assaults, and from border and boundary disputes to human rights
investigations.

According to the company’s directors, it’s not always easy to use
such sources of information as Google Earth as satellite data has
some pitfalls. "Trials have been collapsing because courts
cannot be convinced of the authenticity of image data,”
Purdy told New Scientist.

"Because it is always possible to modify a digital image, you
need strong archiving procedures plus information on when it was
captured and what happened to it subsequently," said Harris.
"We know how to do that."

The space detectives
revealed a story of insurance investigators, who charged an
American couple, whose New Orleans home, as they had claimed, was
destroyed by wind and water. Backed by the database of the
Digital Globe of Longmont, Colorado, they found out that the
damage occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit the city – which
means it was deliberate.

“As the resolution gets better we will be able to do things
like search fields for graves (recently dug earth) in cases of
abduction, or trace where certain pollutants came from before
they entered watercourses,” Purdy told News Corp.

He added that “Air & Space Evidence” would not be
investigating adultery cases, although the technology made it
possible. “Unmanned aerial vehicles are good enough to catch
anyone cheating if certain interactions (hugging, kissing) take
place outdoors.”

Paul Champion, a private investigator based in Cardiff, UK, and a
governor of the Association of British Investigators, was
fascinated by the notion of space-based detection: "It's an
innovative idea. Investigators will really welcome the ability to
identify when an incident occurred using before and after
satellite or aerial images."